Harajuku’s latest and most extreme fashion tribes have been causing a stir online after recently being featured on Japanese TV.

Online there is not much appreciation for these daring fashionistas:

“Monsters!”

“Go back to the countryside!”

“Be realistic. These are like 0.05% of the people there.”

“Well, you can get away with this in Tokyo. I’ve seen a few on the trains, nobody bats an eyelid.”

“You can often see them on the Yamanote line on the weekends, and in Harajuku of course. It’s cool for them to group up in Harajuku and they seem to have a good time, but I feel a bit sorry for them thinking about them going home to the countryside all alone on the train dressed like that.”

“They say in the subs ‘we’re like western influenced’ – somehow I think not.”

“More like Blade Runner influenced.”

“They are more Heian than western…”

“Go and show off in the countryside instead of bothering Tokyo with your weird looks!”

“One’s 21 – no old women please.”

“It’s not fashion but a costume parade!”

“More like Halloween. Saying these are western influenced is like saying a foreigner running around dressed as a ninja and waving a sword is ‘Japan-influenced.'”

“This is just an escape route for uglies.”

“I think if a pretty girl did this it could be quite alluring… but they are all ugly and it is just guro.”

“Goth loli evolved.”

“This is basically like yamamba, but from the other side.”

“When I saw ganguro I just knew somebody would try it from the white side.”

“Well, I think expressing your true character through total fashion like this is cooler than trying to do it by just dying your hair.”

“If this gets circulated overseas they will all just think Japanese are totally infatuated with whites.”

Oh please, it’s just a bunch of girls trying to impersonate bands over there. The top picture alone with the girl with the green hair reminds me of some sort of hellish mix between oshare kei and Sendai Kamotsu.

Shironuri’s been around for a long time thanks to bands like Guruguru Eigakan and SEX-ANDROID, I’m kind of surprised anyone is taking note of them now. Well, it’s just a phase for teenagers and young 20 somethings who follow these bands, it doesn’t last.

They’re just out having innocent fun with their friends, so I see no reason to make fun of them.

Besides, I’d much rather see a group of girls having fun in a weird catgirl outfit or frilly lolita doll dress than than the packs of girls dressed like everyday sluts that I see over here in the states.

We all do something stupid or another. Hell, you’re on a site right now that at least “tolerates” if not outright encourages lolicon behavior–that sounds much stupider than some girls who like to dress in unusual ways. Being able to tolerate things you may not agree with shows a lot more maturity than hating people you think are “stupid” just because they’re different.

Still, this is far more over the top than I saw when I went to Harajuku. I suppose, just like otakus, they’re going further and further from the mainstream with their styles. I don’t really like how they look but as the top post said, better that they’re wearing kinda funky unique outfits than slutting it up like so many girls here. I’m all for sexual freedom, but there’s such a lack of care with partners, STDs, pregnancies and the like that I do wish a lot of those girls were a bit more selective.

Ah, Japan. Just when I think you’re an infuriating maelstrom of hollow lives and narrow thinking, people like this skitter out of the rotted-out holes in the woodwork and I fall for you all over again.

Yeah, It’s pretty common to see these various Harajuku styled street fashions in Tokyo, but one day when I went to Akihabara there was a huge amount of cosplayers in the streets all of a sudden, and It was pretty cool.